With Griswold ahead by five points going into the night’s final match, wrestler Phil Michel knew all he had to do was stay off his back against New London’s Mike Commander to give the Wolverines the Eastern Connecticut Conference Small Division victory.

Easier said than done.

Michel danced and squirmed himself out of Commander’s holds early in the 120-pound finale, but midway through the second period, Commander caught Michel by the arms and rolled on top of him to tally a pin in 3 minutes, 4 seconds.

The six points gave New London a 34-33 victory at Griswold High School.

“(Michel) was tough,” said Commander, a sophomore. “I tried to mostly tilt him. Eventually he wasn’t pulling, so I was able to turn him on his weak side. This was a big team for us, and I just wanted to get the big upset. It was a great feeling.”

According to New London coach Mike Gorton, when Commander found out he’d be the last to wrestle, he already was foretelling it would come down to him.

“He told me before the match that he hopes it comes to him,” Gorton said. “He said it would be awesome if we were down five (going into the) last match because he just wants to be in the position where he can get the pin and win the match. So he was dreaming about that before we even warmed up.”

The Whalers’ victory didn’t come without controversy, however, as a questionable call may have cost Griswold (2-8, 2-3) the match.

In the 106-pound weight class, two bouts before Commander recorded his victory, Griswold’s Carl Edge was on top of Cristian Andino-Torres, working on getting Andino-Torres’ shoulders against the mat.

The ref called Andino-Torres for a technical foul, which came as a benefit to New London (10-5, 2-2), as the match paused and Andino-Torres retook the down position — taking the advantage away from Edge.

Edge still won the match by decision, 7-6, but the three fewer points that Griswold had the chance to receive from a pin proved costly.

“That was a tough match right there,” Griswold coach Dana Cooke said. “Usually the way the referee will call that is only if the guy on top basically rolls off and says ‘I’m hurt or that was illegal,’ then OK, you are going to get the extra point there.

But if you’re on top and pinning a kid, I don’t care what’s happening.

“So the referee took away that pin from us and we only got a three-point decision instead of a six-point pin. Sure, maybe he could have rolled out of it, but we will never know.”

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Edge’s win gave the Wolverines a 33-24 advantage, but New London’s Alejandro Paulino (113) recorded a major decision in the next match, setting up for Commander’s heroics.

“I can’t complain. Our guys wrestled very well,” Cooke said. “I love to see that New London’s back at it. They’ve been a long time coming, trying to keep that program going and have built it back up to something respectable again. Congratulations to them.”